George Wyllie was interested in what Robert Burns had to say and
he often used these words of Burns in his own work...

'Whatever mitigates the woes or increases the happiness of
others, this is my criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large,
or any individual in it, this is my measure of iniquity'.

Robert Burns

As with the words George Wyllie chose to quote from Adam
Smith, the point being made is that making other people happy and putting
them first will make each of us happy.

The words of Burns were often included in George Wyllie's work,
and there was often a sense of humour in the way he used them and images of
Robert Burns, often on shortbread tins, even creating on one occasion, a shortbread
tin rocket, made during the Cold War with the hope that the Russians would see
it and say, 'That Man to Man the world o'er, Shall brithers be for a' that.

The Burns Line, a boat made by George Wyllie in which the
cargo is made out of shortbread tins is now in the Burns Museum in Ayr.